Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are widely employed for information service, purchase ordering, bank services, making appointments, conference and meeting registration, legal and health consultations, and telecommunications services. Interactive voice systems serve as a front end interface through which a caller can access data processing systems. The IVR system provides prompts to the caller and receives touchtone and or spoken responses from the caller. Through prompt and response interactions, the IVR system collects sufficient information about the caller to direct the caller's call to an appropriate resource, such as an information processing system or the like.
IVR systems are presently deployed in diverse telecommunications network environments. For example, IVR systems are used in wire-line telecommunications networks, GSM (global support for mobile) networks, CDMA (code division multiple access) networks, IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) networks and voice over IP (internet protocol) networks. Invariably, the IVR system for one network is generally not amenable to operation in another network. Also, IVR systems are typically designed to work with an online charging system or an offline charging system, but not both. In the online charging system, charging information for network resource usage is collected concurrently with resource usage and can affect, in real-time, the service rendered. For example, a prepaid call may be disconnected when the prepaid balance is reached. In an offline charging system, charging information for network resource usage is collected concurrently with resource usage and subsequently processed using post-processing systems, but the charging information does not affect in real-time the service rendered. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) charging management specifications (3GPP TS 32.240˜32.299) provide guidelines for online and offline charging systems. See 3gpp.org. The limitations on prior IVR systems restrict the reuse of the IVR system for divergent networks and divergent charging systems. This is undesirable because it adds cost to a service provider in employing multiple network technologies and different charging systems.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved IVR system with support for multiple networks and multiple charging.